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Other Female Singers

Singers get better with age in most instances. I love the way Amy Grant's new album has smokey low tones and often wondered how Karen's voice would have sounded now.
And as a tribute to one of Karen's favorites and mine, Donna Summer, here is Donna in "later years" singing MacArthur Park. Donna has been gone for a year now. (5-17-12)
This performance was recorded in Belgium for the "Night of The Proms".

What is it with great female singers dying in their 20/early 30s? Karen and Cass died at 32, and my other favorite Amy Winehouse died at 27. Is it like a curse of the supremely talented? Lady Gaga and the rest of the generic, untalented pop singers of today still get to make their superficial, plastic music yet the transendent talented ones leave us in a blink?

The moment you hear great singers like Karen Carpenter, Donna Summer, Cass Elliot...etc...the moment they open their mouth and sing that first note, you know it's them. It's the unique-ness of their voices, identifiable...true music like this only come around once in a lifetime.

Karen must have known how unique her voice was yet I wonder if she "really" knew just how important her vocals were to her fans, did she really know the enormous fan base she attracted in her songs? It was a business yet to the fans her voice was "everything"

What a great, fun thread! I've loved reading everyone's lists on here of other female singers they enjoy, and I also can't believe that there are so many other big Basia fans at this website besides myself! That is too cool! I've yet to meet anyone else my own age who listens to her, but I cannot get enough of her music, and I've worn the living heck out of my copy of London Warsaw by now and really ought to get another copy.
My own personal favorite female singers besides Karen and Basia?
- Corinne Drewery from Swing Out Sister. They are just a massively underrated band. "Twilight World," "Precious Words," "Somewhere in the World," "Am I the Same Girl," "The Waiting Game" ... gosh, where do I end? I never go on vacation without taking something of theirs with me. Just really classy, relaxing, and insistently catchy jazz-pop.
- Roberta Flack. Interestingly enough, I don't listen to much of her earlier and most famous material, like "Killing Me Softly," but I'm a sucker for her late '70s and '80s work, like "The Closer I Get to See You," "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love," "Uhh Uhh Ooh Ooh Look Out (Here It Comes)," and "Oasis," which really should have been a monster hit. How that one could top the R&B charts but miss the Hot 100 entirely has always been a mystery to me. Such a great song, and another one I almost always take with me on vacations.
- Andrea Corr. If anyone in pop music these days can claim to have the same vocal charisma as Karen Carpenter, it's her. 'Nuff said.
- Kylie Minogue. She may not have the strongest set of pipes, but she's got a pretty voice all the same, and I don't think there's anyone in dance-pop whose singles and albums are as consistently strong as Kylie's work tends to be. Unfortunately, most of her best stuff has gone pretty much ignored by U.S. radio entirely. (Like "Get Out of My Way," which is my favorite single of hers.) And if you doubt she can sing, I refer you to her last record, The Abbey Road Sessions, which is a stripped-back, unplugged-style revisiting of some of her more famous songs. The closing cut on there, a cocktail-lounge reworking of "Never Too Late," is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard in my life, and the most heartfelt and soul-baring singing I've ever heard come out of her. I've always liked her records, but I had no idea she had that kind of vocal performance in her until I heard that one!
- Oleta Adams. What a voice!! Brenda Russell is a huge talent herself, don't get me wrong (love "Piano in the Dark"!!) but her version of "Get Here" doesn't hold a candle to Oleta's. Definitely one of the more criminally overlooked female vocalists of the '90s.
- Marilyn McCoo. Shame that she never really had much of a solo career, save for her two hit duets with Billy. That woman can sing! Easily one of the more underrated female vocalists of her generation. (How many of you here realize that she actually did a 45 on A&M at one point? It's a duet from the mid-'80s with Steve Archer called "Safe." I've still got a copy around somewhere here, but it's badly beat-up (I've had it since I was six or seven!))
- Carly Simon. Mainly because the woman is just a really, really top-notch songwriter. "You're So Vain," "The Right Thing to Do," "Anticipatipon," "Better Not Tell Her," "Coming Around Again," and "All I Want Is You" are all always in regular rotation on my stereo.
- Olivia Newton-John. Although I'll admit that my love for her has probably less to do with her vocal talent (which is still quite strong) than John Farrar's chops as a songwriter and producer. When he wasn't around, her records clearly suffered, but her records with him tended for the most part to be very excellent.
- Joan Armatrading. Although, even if "Drop the Pilot" were the only thing she ever made, I'd still admittedly be putting her on this list. If I had to pick my all-time favorite single by a female artist, that would have to be it. Darned if I can figure out how that one missed the Top 40. Songs do not get much catchier than that one.
- Agnetha Faltskog. My gosh, what a voice that woman has! Benny and Bjorn were superb songwriters, don't get me wrong, but Abba's biggest asset of all was having Agnetha to give those songs a voice.
- Anita Baker. Not in the least since her records are just always so immaculately produced and the songs so superb ("Giving You the Best ...," "Same Old Love," "Caught Up in the Rapture ..."). I've got a copy of Rapture on just about every format imaginable - vinyl, cassette, CD, MP3, etc.!
- Sade. Not as strong of a vocalist as Anita, I know, but her albums are every bit as immaculately produced and elegant and loaded with strong songs (at least her early discs; her most recent two albums were a little shorter on hooks, I'll admit) as Anita's. When I think "R&B at its most elegant," I think of those two women.
- Yvonne Elliman. She didn't always have the best of material, I know, and she unfortunately got stuck with the disco tag, but she had a really pretty, almost girl-next-door-type voice and, more importantly, a great sense of restraint. She never oversang anything and would just let the beauty of the melodies stand by themselves, which is more than I can say about most female singers from the last two decades. Her best work, i.e. "If I Can't Have You," "Love Pains," "Love Me," etc., tends to be really, really underrated. Today's pop divas would do well to take a cue or two from her!
- Melissa Manchester. A wildly underrated woman. Good songwriter, an even better vocalist. Her set of pipes is really something. Glad to see so many others on this thread like her as well!
- Annie Lennox. I was never a particularly big Eurythmics fan (some of their singles were quite good, but they could be a wildly inconsistent group) but I do quite love the solo albums she's done since then. Her last solo album, Songs of Mass Destruction, really floated under the radar and didn't get much attention, but it is excellent. "Through the Glass Darkly" and "Fingernail Moon" never fail to give me goosebumps.
- Tracey Thorn from Everything But the Girl. Not a showy singer by any stretch of the imagination, but she's got a lovely voice all the same, and she and Ben have always put out wonderful and really classy pop albums. Amplified Heart may have the been most popular. but I've got a soft spot for the more jazz-pop-tinged The Language of Life, which reminds me a little bit at times of Basia.

The moment you hear great singers like Karen Carpenter, Donna Summer, Cass Elliot...etc...the moment they open their mouth and sing that first note, you know it's them. It's the unique-ness of their voices, identifiable...true music like this only come around once in a lifetime.

Karen must have known how unique her voice was yet I wonder if she "really" knew just how important her vocals were to her fans, did she really know the enormous fan base she attracted in her songs? It was a business yet to the fans her voice was "everything"

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I think Karen really did know the impact that her music had on people's lives, that her soulful, comforting voice found a special place in the heart's of millions. Perhaps she downplayed things because of Richards lack of attention and her family's lack of interest in Karen herself. Maybe her own personal struggles kept her fully being able to appreciate the fact that while her family didn't always appreciate her for herself, the millions who heard her did. In the family Richard was the star, out of the house he was just the boring piano player. But the only star Karen wanted to be was the one her family could see, and it's heartbreaking that it never happened for her.

I also found this very sad, but very interesting story I found that has to do with her personal impact on the life on one fan:

"At that time I was also working at K-mart and there was an "odd girl" who kinda look like a guy. Understand that in my sheltered world this was something I had never seen or even heard of before. She was a MAJOR Karen Carpenter fan. The day that I heard Karen had died I immediately thought of this girl and wondered how she was taking the news. Later that night when I went to work I found out the answer. This 18 year old girl had killed herself.

I remember that at that time I thought she must have been really screwed up to kill herself because a pop star died. It was literally years later when I figured it all out. She had no one. She was all alone and no one understood her or wanted to be her friend. She found Karen Carpenter with her beautiful voice and unassuming ways and latched on for dear life. Karen was this girls' lifeline and when she lost that she thought she lost everything.

Karen had a way of making everyone feel better. About themselves, about life and about what the world could be."

Although Karen was and will always be my favorite singer, I have enjoyed other female singers as well, including some of Karen's contemporaries, such as Melissa Manchester (my 2nd favorite), Carly Simon, Olivia-Newton John, Carole King, and Helen Reddy.

I also have a tendency to prefer some of the more obscure works of certain singers, for instance: Heart's "Dog and Butterfly," Linda Ronstadt's "Dreams to Dream," Fleetwood Mac's (Stevie Nicks') "Beautiful Child," Donna Summer's "There Will Always Be a You," and Celine Dion's "Immortality."

Speaking of Linda Ronstadt, among her many musical genres, I really enjoyed her "Trio" work with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris---such great harmonies.>>>

James - are you inside my head? I had collections from each of these ladies in the 70s and 80s. Carly, Olivia, Helen, Melissa.... Carole.... But of course, Karen and Carpenters were at the top of my stack of albums...

In that we share such similar tastes, I wish you'd give country artist Trisha Yearwood a try... Her last two LPs weren't huge commercial successes - but some great material resides there...

also two more earlier favorites are: "On a Bus to St. Cloud" and "I would have Loved you anyway".... Far and away my favorite vocalist today....

Did someone mention British singer Dido?? Her latest CD "Girl Who Got Away" is a great CD which any songs are NOT getting airplay in the U.S.. There is also 6 bonus tracks at the Barnes & Noble store NOT Target. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

As a casual listener from way back, I have learned a lot on this forum about the music of the Carpenters; Karen being it's heart and soul. So I was wondering . . .
Since Karen's passing, are there other female singers whose style you appreciate and tend to listen to? They don't necessarily need to compare to her sound or style (who could, really). I am open to suggestions of different singers to listen to and thought since we all already have a love for Karen's voice in common, we could offer suggestions for further listening.

I am a HUGE Basia fan, from the beginning of her international career in the 80's. I also like other artists who really make you listen to the lyrics, like Carly Simon, Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie, and Heart's Nancy Wilson.

Who do you listen to?

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I certainly listen to Christine McVie and Nancy Wilson for a start!! Fleetwood Mac is much the poorer for losing Christine. What about the "trio" of Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton?

A pity that Cass Elliot's voice is all double-tracked in this solo performance of "Make Your Own Kind of Music" - especially in what is meant to be a live performance. She was better than this at her best - unfortunately she was out of control.

You may know her sister Leah Kunkel is an excellent singer - wonderful backing vocals for quite a lot of Art Garfunkel's solo songs.

Manhattan Transfer don't do a lot of a capella (unaccompanied) singing do they? Jazz harmony singing. I am pleased that you have posted these Carpenters songs - sung by Janis Siegel. No doubt about it, she is one of the best in the business. I've seen them live and there is still time for you all. I wonder how I would have felt if these were the original versions of Only Yesterday and Crystal Lullaby?

James - are you inside my head? I had collections from each of these ladies in the 70s and 80s. Carly, Olivia, Helen, Melissa.... Carole.... But of course, Karen and Carpenters were at the top of my stack of albums...

In that we share such similar tastes, I wish you'd give country artist Trisha Yearwood a try... Her last two LPs weren't huge commercial successes - but some great material resides there...

also two more earlier favorites are: "On a Bus to St. Cloud" and "I would have Loved you anyway".... Far and away my favorite vocalist today....

Enjoy!

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Barry, thanks a million for your comments and for posting these Trisha Yearwood videos! I also like her, I'm glad you mentioned her, and I will be sure to pick up a CD or two of hers soon.

Sharing similar tastes is a great connection. I certainly don't have it (with regard to music) in my life outside this website. Is it the same principle as "great minds think alike?" Your comments motivated me to post something here, which I haven't done in months. Thanks again, and take care.

We've been having a little discussion over in the general music forum about an A&M record that was released back in 1974. It was a group fronted by singer/composer Valerie Carter with the odd name of Howdy Moon. I think most Carpenters fans would appreciate this recording of "Cook With Honey". Valerie wrote it, sings lead and backup harmony vocals and the record is just gorgeous.

Like so many other obscure A&M Records, the only source these days is Japanese CD. There are several iterations to choose from at places like CDJapan. I remember the song from radio back in '74. I missed taping it before it disappeared, but never forgot how hauntingly beautiful the record is.

We've been having a little discussion over in the general music forum about an A&M record that was released back in 1974. It was a group fronted by singer/composer Valerie Carter with the odd name of Howdy Moon. I think most Carpenters fans would appreciate this recording of "Cook With Honey". Valerie wrote it, sings lead and backup harmony vocals and the record is just gorgeous.

Like so many other obscure A&M Records, the only source these days is Japanese CD. There are several iterations to choose from at places like CDJapan. I remember the song from radio back in '74. I missed taping it before it disappeared, but never forgot how hauntingly beautiful the record is.

Harry

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Thank you for sharing that Harry - it is beautiful. Is there an album, or was this it for them?